


To Old Friends

by fizzyblogic (phizzle)



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, The Sandman
Genre: Conversations, Gen, POV Third Person, Present Tense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-20
Updated: 2010-07-20
Packaged: 2017-10-10 16:54:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/101968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phizzle/pseuds/fizzyblogic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Captain Jack Harkness and Hob Gadling meet in a bar.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Old Friends

Jack meets him in a slightly dusty spaceport bar in the 36th century, when he drops onto the stool next to him and says, "Can I buy you a drink, fabled traveller?"

Jack looks up. The guy's cute. Human, mid-30s maybe, red hair. Jack gives him the charm smile and holds out a hand. "Captain Jack Harkness. And you are?"

"Rob Gadling," comes the reply. "What'll it be, Captain?"

Jack turns to the Nyxy behind the bar. "I'll have one of those pink things, with the umbrella," he says in Nyx. "On the rocks - quartz, if you have it."

"Thanks for not ordering diamond," Rob says. He sounds amused.

Jack shrugs. "You offered."

Rob looks at him for a moment, thoughtful. "Is it true you've lived for over a hundred years?"

"I've lived a lot more than that. And so well-preserved," he winks.

Rob nods to himself. "I thought you might be the legendary man I'd heard about. Antique coat, flirts with everything, lovely smile. Old eyes."

Something in his voice makes Jack look into the drink the Nyxy has just placed on the bar. "Yeah, well, you'd have old eyes too if you'd seen the things I have."

"It does that to you," Rob says, and his voice is soft, "living for centuries."

Jack looks up. "Sounds like you're talking from experience."

"I am." He takes a pull of his drink. "I'm over two thousand years old now. Never thought I'd live to see such things as this." His hand wanders around, taking in the shabby bar, the view from the windows, the alien and human clientele.

"You from Earth?" Jack asks.

"Yep. I've forgotten which year I was born in, but I know it was before 1389. That year, I remember."

Something stirs in Jack's memory. "I heard this story once," he says, "about a man who never aged. He met a tall man in a pub once a century, and neither of them looked any different." He looked at Rob. "What happened in 1389?"

Rob grins. "I made a friend."


End file.
